Competitive world
The type of investing done by Harris's company, Apollo, is rarely described in generous ways. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney often catches heat for Bain Capital, a similar company he founded.
Harris described his business this way:
"What we try to do is we take money from institutional investors - teachers and firefighters and ordinary people's pension funds. It's simple: They give us a dollar and they want to get back more than two dollars over a five- and seven-year period. We're supposed to create long-term equity value for these pension funds, and that's what we do. We do that by buying good companies and facilitating value creation.
"That can be in some cases growing the company. In some cases that can be making a good deal on the way in, buying a good company inexpensively, buy low and sell high. It can be improving the company's cost structure, making it more efficient, investing in it. There are plenty of ways to do it. But to create that kind of value, you have to change something."
What about criticism that Romney is facing, that Bain Capital killed companies, destroyed jobs?
"Ultimately, yeah, basically, there definitely are situations where you can create value through making companies more efficient," he said. "Sometimes that means that jobs are downsized. But really, we live in a competitive world, and to make a company successful globally, sometimes that needs to be done.
"And ultimately, really, the beneficiaries are the normal local firefighters, teachers, policemen, and people like that. I think over time, in any election, this will be positioned one way or another. But I feel good about what I do in terms of being good for the country."
Harris also feels good about his new team. He has a wife and five children, three of whom are old enough to be Sixers-crazy, though he and his family live in Manhattan and the kids won't be getting down here on too many school nights.
Harris usually comes by car, with a driver, though Adam Aron has been trying to persuade him to take the train. But the car's fast and easy. He isn't planning on quitting his day job, but has loved being back in Philadelphia and says he might buy a place here and spend more time.
At home games, you know where to find him.
"I like to be on the floor," he said. "I like seeing the games down there, and it's good to be down there with the fans. I get a pulse for how people are feeling. The funniest interaction I had with a fan was a fan said, 'It's hot dog night. You ran out of hot dogs. Then you tried to sell me cold dogs.' I reported that back quickly. I wanted to make sure we didn't lose so-and-so.
"But generally people are happy that we're around."
Contact staff writer Michael Vitez at 215-854-5639 or mvitez@phillynews.com @michaelvitez on Twitter.
